Clothing & Footwear » The Green Novice

Favourite things

Feb 232011

Time for a “favourite things” post …

Just one more – Whilst not an organic wine, Organic Planet Wine is in environmental packaging and the Sauvignon Blanc is delicious.

Take me to Mexico pronto! Vintage dress from Purple Deer Vintage just dreamily divine for throwing over a bikini and heading off to the beach

Love love but need a new house to fit! Lichen encrusted boulder photograph by Bob Brown – leader of the Greens political party – (yes it surprised me too that he was a photographer!)

Hello there – I think you belong on my feet. Boot by Novacas who are committed to providing animal-friendly, environmentally-friendly, and worker-friendly products

Avery Grey

A worthwhile use for my old bras

Clothing & Footwear

Feb 172011

When pregnant, I bemoaned my increasing girth apart from one DD aspect. Yes my breasts went from an average B/C measurement to a jaw dropping DD! Of course, this necessitated the purchase of new bras (HotMilk & Cake make gorgeously sexy pregnancy/nursing ones for those interested ) to celebrate them in all their glory. But now I have wrapped up the nursing component of motherhood and no longer need these types of bras.

It feels such a waste to just throw them away – after all they weren’t used for that long a period. I could list them on Ebay and secure a little cash for them (nursing bras are quite popular it seems on Ebay!) but I have discovered a really nice way to pass them on and gain a little charitable glow by donating to upliftbras.org

upliftbras.org are an organisation that provides women in 3rd world countries with 2nd hand bras. The organisation was borne out of aid workers & tourists in Fiji being asked for 2nd hand bras – often Fijian women would not even have one bra resulting in health & dignity issues. The program has since spread to other Pacific Island nations and to the Phillipines with over 300,000 bras distributed. Nursing, mastectomy and size 18+ bras are in high demand.

It is such a great, practical concept and I encourage you, particularly if you are a larger size or have been pregnant recently, to have a look through your underwear draw to see if you can donate anything as well.

My favourite things

Clothing & Footwear

Nov 112010

It’s Thursday and what a glorious day it is. Finally the rain has decided on a little hiatus and the promise of summer is in the air.

I thought I’d dedicate today’s post to all the wonderful environmentally friendly / sustainable products I’ve discovered on my wanderings through the world wide web. Truth be told I’ve been spending far too much time surfing with the excuse that I’m looking for inspiration for a care package for my friend but really I just love browsing in any way shape or form!

Hemp string bag – to carry all your organic fruit & veges from the markets

Organic hemp baby shoes – positively adorable

Wrap around skirt handmade from reclaimed materials

Turquoise sandals made by young Ugandan women saving money for university in a special 9mth “gap” program

Rust and Moss - pet pocket pinafore dress

Adorable baby girls dress using vintage fabric

Sigh – I’m in heaven. Now if only I could buy everything. I think that the computer and I need some time apart so that I can resist the urge to pull out my credit card. Off to enjoy the sun!

How I've managed to not buy new clothes!

Clothing & Footwear, Progress Reports

Sep 232010

Someone asked me the other day on how my challenge is going, particularly with regards to the daunting objective of not buying new clothes for 365 days.

Well with spring in the air and the new season’s fashions provocatively beckoning from shop windows I must say the willpower has been severely tested! I’m sure that anyone else who is also trying to minimise new clothes purchasing is also in the same boat so I thought I’d do a post today on how I’ve so far managed to restrain myself.

Wardrobe audit – I went through my wardrobe to find Spring/Summer clothing that with just a nip & tuck could be reborn into a favourite piece of clothing. For $50 all up, the local seamstress has reinvented three dresses and made them wearable for the season.
Avoiding magazines - Fashion spreads in magazines are a siren call to purchase and by not curbing my desire to buy magazines (see post re my previous magazine addiction) I am avoiding temptation
Allowed myself an indulgence – Searched through the local op-shop and found, for $10, one breezy summer top
Gave myself a compelling reason not to spend – Created a “holiday” account and have been putting all savings and money that may have gone on clothes into the account – New York here we come!
Blogged about my challenge – by making people aware of my challenges I am ensuring that I am being held accountable for my actions. It is a great motivator when you want to ensure that you don’t disappoint people who are supporting your efforts
Reminded myself of the environmental consequences of buying new clothes – On average worldwide, every new T-shirt made takes about 1.5 kilograms of chemicals (pesticides and fertilizers) to produce. Not to forget the water usage, carbon pollution by transporting clothing, landfill and the ethical considerations of where & how a product is made
Attended a clothing swap – see post

So far so good! I just wish I knew how to sew (or had a sewing machine) then I could actually make my own clothes using the piles of vintage fabrics my mother has stored away!

Score at Carriageworks!

Clothing & Footwear

Aug 012010

In a dark and cavernous building yesterday, amongst hundreds of other people I popped my clothes swapping cherry. As blogged about a couple of weeks back, Carriageworks in Sydney were hosting a massive clothing swap event as part of their 3 day Exchange for Change event focusing on sustainability practices in fashion and highlighting the ethical consequences behind our need for the latest designer item. According to their website, the benefits of swapping are as follows:

Recycling takes items you have finished with and puts them back into circulation.
By passing your clothes, accessories or equipment on to others, you are diverting materials from landfill thus conserving resources and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Reusing a product, rather than buying a new one, reduces the demands for water, energy and raw materials. This reduces the impact on the environment.
Swapping 1 suitcase (20kg) of clothes saves enough energy to run a TV non-stop for 1.7 years.
Swapping clothing diverts these organic materials from landfill. In landfill they produce methane, a greenhouse gas with the global warming capacity 20 times stronger than CO2.

For me, I was stoked to pick up six items (3 skirts, 3 pairs of shoes) in exchange for clothing that has been gathering dust at the back of my cupboard for years – one dress that had never been worn! And the event itself was quite fun although I was disappointed in the quality of alot of the items as some people had brought along things that were well worn and probably more suited for the charity bin. Hopefully next year their will be better quality items either from the event organisers being more stringent or people getting more into the spirit of the swap more.

Did anyone go along to the swap? What did you think?

Recycling & reusing is not boring!

Clothing & Footwear, Home, Reuse / recycle

Jul 272010

When I first started on my sustainable experiment I had a perception that “green people” were mung bean chomping, hemp wearing, annoyingly vocal environmentalist hippies who by virtue of being virtuous are rather bland. Furthermore the terms fashionable, designer or innovative were divorced from green products & clothing.

I am therefore been surprised but thrilled to be proven wrong. In fact I may be so bold to say that some producers in the green space are at the forefront of innovation and cutting edge with great covetable (is that a word!) pieces. Some fantastic sites and products I’ve stumbled upon …

www.bluecaravan.net – online Aussie store stocking a range of ethically made products – adore the gorgeous baby shoes made from 100% certified recycled plastic bottles

www.ecofabulous.com – online US blog site that is just fabulous! Scours the world of green to bring you recommendations on all sorts of exciting products – even eco-friendly “down their” products!! Problem is I want to buy them all!

www.reestore.com – online UK furniture store that takes recycling to the new level – who would have thought a shopping trolley could become a groovy chair!

Does anyone have any recommendations for other great sites?

Thank you clothing gods!

Clothing & Footwear

Jul 142010

I did an audit of my wardrobe the other day and found it anemic to say the least – particularly as I bought minimal items when pregnant. Conversely, for a man uninterested in fashion, my husband seems to have an inordinately large volume of clothing. The majority of which he never wears gathering dust at the back of the wardrobe.

So there were great whoops of joy when I discovered that Carriageworks in Sydney is hosting a free mass clothing exchange on the 31st July. Essentially the premise is to bring in your good quality clothing (so not the worn rags destined for Vinnies) that you no longer wear, receive credit points for this clothing and go hunting through someone else’s trash for hopefully a few treasures! It is a great idea as I’m sure there are lots of people like my husband who follow the 80 / 20 rule (only wear 20% of their wardrobe). I will be definitely downsizing his clothing to use as collateral to pick up some items for me! And thinking about some of my things I have at least a couple of items only ever worn once and probably won’t be worn again – bridesmaid dress that cost $250 that I look rather frumpy in and on the opposite end of the spectrum a black plunging neckline dress that I’ve worn twice and felt incredibly self conscious in as it left little to the imagination!

In addition to the swap, Carriageworks are running a series of seminars (under the headline banner of Exchange for Change) to educate people on the fashion industry and what some designers are doing to be more ethically responsible. See http://carriageworks.com.au for info.

Have you ever done a clothing swap? What are your thoughts?

Ethical underwear

Clothing & Footwear

Jun 252010

Knickers, Undies, Unmentionables, Lingerie, Over the Shoulder Boulder holder, Tightie Whities. Whatever they are called I need some new ones as not up for going commando a la Britney Spears

My underwear has had more than its fair share of demands placed upon it over the last year. After 42 weeks of pregnancy and 5mths of breast feeding my underwear has had enough of being stretched and pulled in all directions. It also doesn’t help that I’m extremely lazy and just throw everything in the washing machine and dryer and hope for the best.

Of course this presents a problem with the no new clothes rule I’ve imposed on myself as I can’t very well buy second hand (well apart from some vending machines in Japan but that is just so wrong!).

I decided that I would forgo my rule this time but I had to buy sustainable underwear. Does it really matter if I buy sustainable / organic versus what is in store at present? Well there is a great website (morethanprettyknickers.com) which provides some pretty compelling reasons to go down the sustainable / organic route.

Some online stores I’ve discovered…

Fashion-conscious.com – includes clothing & accessories as well you can actually select from a menu of vegan, sustainable, fair trade, recycled, organic, UK made
Eco-boudoir.com – putting a sexy spin on organic
stellamccartney.com – probably the only major fashion designer with a green ethos. Not all her products are organic but she’s definitely ahead of the pack
wearpact.com – by far the best green credentials but a little boring

The only issue with these stores are that they’re not local so the transportation to me would involve a fair amount of carbon emissions.

So until I find local I may just have to keep hitching up the undies and keeping them under wraps!

Does anyone have any recommendations for local options?

Shoe repair a lost skill?

Clothing & Footwear

Jun 232010

I have only one pair of boots – a lovely caramel brown velvety soft pair that I have worn to death. The sole has worn through and my feet get sodden when it rains. Which is quite often at the moment!

Historically I would have thrown them out and gone hunting high and low for a replacement pair but in the spirit of my experiment I thought I’d get the heel resoled.

Unfortunately this has not proved to be as simple as I thought. I found a cobbler in Balmain (Balmain Shoe Repairs) who, via the sales person out the front, took one look and said that they couldn’t repair my shoes. I did try to push the point and said that they didn’t need to be perfect – just sufficient to get me through Winter but the guy was immovable and disappointingly quite dismissive.

So what to do? Turning to my trusty friend the internet I tried searching for recommendations from other Sydneysiders but discovered that alot of people seemed to be in the same boat struggling to find a good repairer. It seems that in this age of mass consumerism it is easier to replace and ship off the old to landfill.

Determined not to be beaten in my quest I then hit upon the idea of DIY shoe repair and making my own. I’m not shy of challenges! Unfortunately I don’t quite have the $2,600 required for the 5 day shoemaking course run in Surry Hills! That’s one expensive pair of shoes.

I guess I’ll have to keep on trying to find a shoe repairer who can help. I’m off to one in Crows Nest on Saturday so hopefully there will be a happy ending to this story.

AN UPDATE!!! After two failed attempts I found an old school cobbler (The Ultimate Cobbler in Crows Nest) who will be rebuilding my boots. Looking forward to getting the finished product next week.

ANOTHER UPDATE!! Thank you Michael from The Ultimate Cobbler. I LOVE my repaired boots and so happy that I’ll hopefully get many more years of wear out of them. Thank you for taking the challenge head on in repairing them when other repairers said I should just throw them out.

Has anyone else had this problem? Any recommendations?